


The Divided

by TheCanadianInfernape



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Family Drama, Multi, Post-Apocalypse, Survival, Time Travel, Time War, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-13 21:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9142930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCanadianInfernape/pseuds/TheCanadianInfernape
Summary: A night out with Jackie is interrupted for Marco Diaz as two mysterious teenagers come from two separate portals with two separate goals to achieve. Marco soon finds that both kids claim to be his children from two alternate timelines, while his own timeline provides a fork in the road for both possibilities.(Based loosely on moringmark's Ship War AU)





	1. Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> Written by TheCanadianInfernape  
> AU concieved by moringmark
> 
> Disclaimer: So yeah. I felt like I should start working on another fanfic, so while The Fall going through several plot rewrites, I decided to distract myself with another story in the meantime.
> 
> \- This is based off of moringmark's Ship War AU, and I was focused on keeping it as close to his original idea as possible. All credit to the lad. Some of the scenes are based off some of the comics he drew.
> 
> \- I obviously don't own any properties or characters from either the Ship War AU or from Star vs. the Forces of Evil. (It would be cool if I did though)

In just a matter of years, the city of Echo Creek, California became unrecognizable by any travellers who dared lurk into the city boundaries.

Dust rattled in the air, with varying sizes of dust clouds hovering above the ground. The gravel roads were deserted with cars scattered unorderly on the roads, and fire arising from the engines. Off the streets, small store buildings were abandoned, with windows smashed and cobwebs forming on the interiors. Not a living person was to be seen.

Yet through the dust and isolation, a young teenager approached one of these stores. The man was dressed in a ragged and torn purple robe and bandages wrapped around each of his arms. His face was unrecognizable, with green-tinted goggles covering his eyes and a purple cloth covering his mouth. His hair was a luscious shade of brown, a sea-green highlight coloring a small strand of his hair. What was most notable was his large brown sack burdening his shoulders.

The boy entered the run down store with a red-lettered banner with several red letters faded to the point that the sign read "ECHO CR-K CONV-NI-C-". He removed his bandana and goggles, revealing his shade of bright green irises. The boy's parents called his eyes the most beautiful thing they've seen since the disaster.

The disaster in question, the event people around him called _Stapocalypse_ , happened about a decade and a half ago. The boy's parents were apparently just two years younger than his current age, sixteen. It was the day when monsters rained down from a red crack in the sky and a bubble formed around the city's boundaries, preventing any travellers who dared enter or exit the city. It was the day that many had to retreat in an underground shelter to survive.

It was the day that the boy lost his freedom.

The boy looked around the the small store. It was run down with cracked tiles littering the floor. Large amounts of dust were scattered throughout the store, and the boy even had trouble breathing from all the dust in the air. After taking a second to cough everything out of his system, he kept calm and level-headed as he paid attention to a nearby shelf.

The boy found a large orange bag of _Golden Crispz_ potato chips and opened the bag up just slightly, not to expose the chips to the near-toxic air around him. The boy quickly looked around him, then grabbed a small crisp and silently chewed on it with his mouth. After a few bites, the boy's eyes widened and he winced. He spewed the chewed remains out onto the floor and rubbed his hand on his tongue, trying to diffuse the awful taste.

He should have known better, anyways. It had been about several years since the beginning of Stapocalypse had occurred. The chips would more than likely have expired by now.

The boy cursed to himself, not just in mere frustration and stresses that the apocalypse had brought, although such an outburst would've been justified. Rather, the boy cursed with the thought that, if he couldn't find any sources of food here and now, he would have to look someplace else for something to eat. And who knew how long another trial, like that, would take.

He turned his attention to the freezer. The freezer was still cold after all these years, even though the electrical circuits powering it would definitely have been dead for a while now. Inside of the freezer, the boy found a few bottles of orange liquid. He took the first bottle and tasted it. It was definitely lukewarm, but unlike the chips he encountered before, it was at least consumable.

Jackpot. He took a few of the remaining bottles and stuffed as many in his bag as he could muster. He thought about his family, and how excited they would be that he had brought something home for them.

He looked around for a few more supplies, rummaging through the many shelves. Of the supplies he gathered, he gained a small lighter, a pack of old chewing gum, and a small pack of batteries, just in case.

The boy decided to stop and rest in the shelter for a minute, keeping his guard up against any threatening monsters. He closed his eyes and thought about stories. In particular, the stories that were once told to him by his father, who loved to tell him stories of what life was like before Stapocalypse.

The boy remembered being told about how the blue sky was covered with white clouds, which the boy could now only see on a lucky day that did not include significant dust-storms. The boy was also was told about the green grass at Echo Creek Park, and the trees standing upright, with leaves as bright of a green colour as his own eyes. Now, the park was enveloped by dried-up brown grass and the trees stripped of their green natural leaves.

The teenager now dreamt of running in the park, playing catch with his younger sister while his parents were watching from ontop of a hill, their bodies laid on top of a red and white cloth with a picnic basket. These were the thoughts that the boy could never experience. He even had trouble picturing these dreams, only remembering by the mere stories he was told.

Just as he had finished his casual fantasizing, the boy heard a growling noise from not too far away. The boy looked confident enough, but deep down he knew that he jumped out of his skin. With a quick reaction, he rummaged quickly through his sack and pulled out a dark laser rifle. He wrapped his brown cloth and goggles across his face, preparing himself to step out of the store.

Looking out of the store, the dust-clouds started to rustle through the deserted town as much as ever, which was a common occurrence when the day wore on. Even with his night-vision goggles, the boy's vision was still very limited. Still, the growling noises were now closer than ever.

Staying silent and listening carefully, the boy crouched on one knee for the growling. The purring of the nearby threat befuddled him. From what his father had told him after years of self-defense training, the boy knew that merely listening would allow the boy to anticipate where his enemy would strike. And, alas, anticipate he did. This little trick allowed him to pinpoint where his enemy was. He kept clear vision of his own attacker and watched his right side.

Sure enough, a black werewolf-like monster with a large and hairy black chest pounced from his right hand side. His quick reaction allowed the boy to quickly hold up his blaster and aim. A blue beam of light struck the werewolf right in the arm as it stumbled out of its pounce and toppled to the ground.

For a second the boy got ready to aim again, but this werewolf was certainly not a pushover. The werewolf clutched its injured arm for a second before striking to attack him again. The boy tried to aim again but the black monster struck the blaster right out of his arm. The blaster hit the pavement with a _clang_ , but the dust was so opaque by this point that he didn't even have any time to rummage around through it.

The boy instead braced himself for the creature to attack, and attack it did. A large swinging punch was enough to let the helpless teenager fly backwards, falling onto his back as he lay paralyzed, victim to a very agitated and bulky monster.

Letting out a hideous roar, the monster struck Jam's face with yet another punch to one of his eyes. As the boy closed his eyes, anticipating the punch, he heard a shattering noise with a rough feeling towards one of his eyes. To his disbelief, the werewolf had cracked one of the fragile green lenses on his pair of goggles. Now one of his eyes was heavily exposed by sand.

Covering one of his eyes with his hand, the boy was helpless. He felt significant pain with every blow the furious werewolf laid upon him, and he was running out of options quickly. Getting up on his bum, the boy found a dusty metal exhaust pipe lying on the street, which he deduced came from a car that was ripped apart by monsters during Stapocalypse.

The boy reached for the exhaust pipe with his hand, and adjusted it in his hand so he could prepare his aim. He had never been taught how to javelin-style throw a spear before, but, for the boy, it was better to take an effort at it than to get mauled by a heavyweight werewolf. Chucking it, the tip of the pipe struck the chest of the giant monster as it stumbled backwards. The moment the werewolf stumbled the boy started his counter attack. Lunging towards the large hairy body, the boy shoved him down to the floor. Now the tables have turned with the body of the werewolf on the floor, the boy standing above his attacker.

The exhaust pipe gave the boy an advantage over his adversary, allowing him a wider range covering his attack. The dust was raging on, but the black body illuminated through the storm. With several blows, the boy whacked the monster's face from side to side, knocking it unconscious.

Panting and out of breath, the boy sat in the middle of the duststorm, still covering his exposed eye, recollecting himself from the ordeal. He scrambled around the area and found his blaster rifle, luckily unscathed from any damage.

The dust was getting worse by the second, and the boy persuaded himself to finally return home.

* * *

The boy entered a rocky cave in a large cliff at the outskirts of the city. On the way there, he had to keep his guard up, trying not to fall victim to any more monsters lurking about. He looked at the wall and pressed a bright red button. From the ground, a loose metal elevator popped up and he stepped inside.

Descending down to the underground, the boy breathed and thought of the same thoughts that he had before. He also thought about his young sister, mother and father living in a small house together, like the townhouses that his father would tell him that people used to live in. The boy felt a plethora of cycling emotions. Hurt, trapped, confused... These cycled around his mind, and he always thought that staying quiet was the best way to keep these in check.

The elevator door opened to reveal a stone sanctuary, where many Echo Creek citizens resided in different rooms. After much exposure from his sixteen years of his life, the looks of these people after he got used to these sights. A kid he walked past was playing with a dead rat. An old man lay asleep against the wall, clothes tattered in torn rags.

He walked back to his small apartment in his own sanctuary and opened the stone door. The door creaked open and his mother, with her bright blonde hair and green eyes, looked up at him in surprise, while his father looked at him sternly. His sister's eyes lit up.

After a brief moment of silence, his mother immediately went over and hugged her son.

"Where have you been, Jam," his mother asked, nearly breaking down in tears. The boy, Jam, could barely even speak. The only thing that he could do was return the hug.

When he broke away from the hug, Jam took out his brown sack and presented the group with his supplies, along with small bottles of the orange liquid. His mother and sister's eyes lit up upon seeing the stash of drinks that he had returned, likewise, his father was rather dissatisfied.

"You went above ground," the father replied.

Jam looked up to his father. He knew that he was angry. He probably shouldn't have done it, anyways. His father told him to never go above ground to fetch for supplies alone. He wouldn't dare oppose his father.

Not when his father was the trusted leader of the Echo Creek Rebellion. Not when his father was Marco Ubalbo Diaz.

"I-I just wanted to fetch something. I was starving," Jam stuttered, trying to explain himself.

"...And so you thought that this was a great idea to try to fetch supplies on your own," Marco's voice rose steadily, pointing at the orange bottles, "And you risked your life trying to get this-this... this freaking junk for rations. It probably wasn't even worth it to begin with, is that right, Jam?"

Normally, Jam would usually argue his father's case. His parents always did call him the rebellious one after all. Seeing his father was angry enough, he chose not to anger him or raise his temper.

"No, father," Jam winced, "I shouldn't have gone out. I'm sorry."

His father turned to leave the apartment. But as he past his own son, he scolded, "You're grounded for a month."

 _Grounded_ was one word that Jam refused to here. That word represented an isolation in his home, unable to leave the perimeters of his own house. This was the rock that broke the camels back. Jam stood right up.

"I was trying to help, Father," Jam said, raising his own voice. "You won't let me go out at all. I was trying to help us!"

His father turned back to him slowly just as he headed out the door. He was fuming.

"Listen to me. _Listen to me_ ," Marco prompted fiercely, grabbing his son tightly by the wrist, pointing to an imaginary object, "Out there, is known as the _real world_. Those monsters will maul you and eat you up so quickly that you'll earn a free ticket to the afterlife faster than you can say 'don't eat me'."

"I'm sixteen," Jam replied. "You even taught me how to defend myself! I think I'm old enough to make decisions for myself, don't you think, Father?"

"Not old enough for me," Marco shouted back, before letting go of his son, closing the door behind him. Jam, in frustration, slammed his fist against the wall and let out a shout. His mother looked right at him as he allowed his eleven year old sister to drink one of the orange bottles. As Jam kept punching the wall, his mother, the stunning Jackie Lynn Thomas, looked in his eyes and got him to stop.

"Hey... hey," Jackie cooed, cupping her son's face in her hand, "Don't worry about your father. I'm pretty sure deep down, he's thankful for what you did. He's just kinda- stressed about this whole Stapocalypse."

"Mother, he's been like this to me for a long time," Jam snapped, turning to face his mother. "

Jackie took a while to recollect her son's thoughts inside her head. Finally, she spoke.

"When you were born," Jackie recollected, "Stapocalypse had already been occurring for several years by then. But the whole fighting stood still on the day I was going to give birth."

Jackie looked up at the stone ceiling for a second, and then continued her story.

"Grandpa and Grandma Diaz was in the room along with me and your father. When you eventually came out of the womb, everyone was _so happy_. In fact, I was shaking so much that I thought that I was going to drop you. So your father took you first and hummed you your first lullaby. He was so happy. Even through all the sadness and depressing times, we felt a loving time had come once again, a time when we were all happy and carefree before the apocalypse, and that was when you came."

"Yeah, what happened to Father," Jam asked sarcastically, "Did he fall into an early midlife crisis or something?" Jackie frowned at her son's sarcasm, but continued her story.

"Thing is," Jackie replied, "You're father's always been a worrywart. Do you know how many elaborate plans he had to hatch just to get a date with me? The thing was that, since Stapocalypse occurred many years ago, Marco actually lost one of our best friends in the ensuing rush to safety. I'm not sure if you'd believe this but... this girl was a magical princess from another dimension."

Jam nodded, in shock but not surprised by this revelation. Monsters lived on the surface of the Earth now, so what's to say that something like that would happen?

"So what happened to this girl," Jam asked, his curiosity beginning to pique, "and what happened to him?"

"Nobody knows, but some say that the girl started to get sucked into the red crack in the sky while monsters came to Earth. She was never seen again. Marco never forgot her, and blamed himself for the events of Stapocalypse."

"Why? What did he do?"

Jam stayed silent as Jackie walked over to the makeshift kitchen with a portable stove on top of a makeshift stone table. She started boiling water.

"I don't believe that now's the best time to tell you the story, Jam. When you're older and understand more things about life, I promise that I will tell you."

Jam didn't believe that, and he was angry that he was yet again being restricted once again by his age. He was sixteen years old already, for goodness' sake. Jackie put a hand on her son's shoulder and reassured him,

"Your father has always loved you, but he has his own special way of letting that known. Just be patient and give your father some room to breathe. I think he should do the same for you too, sometimes,"

Jam smiled at his mother, confirming that her reassurance was definitely felt within him. As he felt rather tired from the day's events, Jam kissed his mother and sister goodnight and headed off to his makeshift bed, which was a small mattress that he would lie on and share with his sister, Grace.

Even though he was tired, he couldn't sleep as a long pile of questions entered his mind: Who was this magical princess? What did Father do to cause the massacre? What magic powers did she possess?

Even more importantly, why was everyone keeping secrets from him?


	2. The Magic Mirror

A set of hooves clomped on the muddy, dew-ridden ground in the green Acadia forests, quickly skipping through trees. A large, white-furred warnicorn hobbled on the dusty stone path. On it, a small girl, with her flowing brown hair scattering in the slight wind, hobbled along the horse's back.

The girl in question was the young thirteen year old Mewman princess from the latest generation of the Butterfly family, Princess Elizabeth. Her blue eyes glimmered in the sunlight, shining in the forest clearing below. Her dark teal dress remained unwrinkled and her body swayed from left to right due to the erratic movements of her warnicorn through the random scatter of trees blocking the horse's way.

Galloping between trees, Elizabeth was a rather careful rider despite the often reckless pacing of the horse. She certainly wasn't like her mother Star, who told her about the time she actually ran a warnicorn into one of the castle walls when she was about her age. This story always gave Elizabeth something to chuckle about whenever she headed out to the trail for a joyride.

After nearly missing a low-hanging branch by a hair, Elizabeth looked and saw a small cave in the distance. Right away, she whipped the reins on the Warnicorn, stopping the animal right in its tracks. Despite taking this trail many times, Elizabeth had never seen a cave like this one before. The girl looked in awe as she paid attention to the mysterious call of adventure, the opportunity placed right in front of her own eyes.

There was a dark, stone-walled cavern, its entrance concealed by a lush clearing of green forest bush. Willing to accept any challenge coming her way, the girl batted away the bushes with her arms, revealing a small opening, just about the size for Elizabeth to crawl into.

Naturally the problem with entering a cave was the lack of illumination from inside. Elizabeth rummaged through her small purple knapsack, something that she resented bringing herself because it would end up too heavy depending on what she'd take on her journey; but promised her father anyways.

"Stay here," Elizabeth quietly prompted her warnicorn, tying the reins to a nearby tree. She grabbed a small blue flashlight from her knapsack and made her way towards the cave entrance.

She looked back towards the land of Mewni, now in plain view from afar. The Butterfly Castle stood, its pink mushroom-like shape still in view, but the houses surrounding the base of the castle were now replaced with buildings with domed roofs, like the castle in the center of them. Different, so much so that the towers were grinded with steel rather than stone, modernized to fit the era.

"Hope you're having fun building another apartment somewhere, Dad," Elizabeth muttered softly before turning back and shining her flashlight into the cave.

The cave gave Elizabeth the chills as she set her first sights into the cave. Darkness surrounded her completely, her vision limited to the slight dim of her small pocket flashlight. Elizabeth was particularly hesitant with each and every step.

Shining her flashlight at a particular spot of the cave, Elizabeth ran head-first into a swarm of bats that flash-flew right in front of her face. Covering her face with one of her hands, she took a deep breath and continued trekking into the cave.

A few steps later, the princess noticed an odd shade of lime green shining from a rather far distance deep inside the cave. A trickle of sweat rolled down her forehead as she trotted further.

When Elizabeth finally turned a corner, the girl saw nothing but an large empty space, the only constraints of this large place being hard, brittle rock walls. The source of the green glow was now revealed to be a small green hand mirror stuck on the crevasse of a tall boulder, approximately the size of a small stool, placed in the center of the cave.

Elizabeth now found herself observing the shiny item from afar. The mirror had an illustrious look to it. Its shine was definitely suppressed over time, but the mirror's green glow prevented Elizabeth from grabbing the mirror entirely. Her mother, the Queen of Mewni, had once attributed a glow of such colour to evil, the glow that linked the mirror to her cleaved wand from many years ago.

But after all, like any other child at Elizabeth's ripe young age, curious impulses often overtook common sense. The first thing the young brunette girl deduced was that stepping closer to the rock wouldn't hurt by any chance; so she did. She slowly tiptoed closer to the central rock.

In the hand mirror was a mere peek at the girl's reflection, which was visible past the dim glow of the hand-mirror. Elizabeth laughed for a second, laughing at her own hesitant actions from before. A small mirror, even the ones sold in Quest Buy, would definitely not cause any harm. What did she have to fear?

Elizabeth grabbed the mirror and observed it from an arm's distance. As expected, light blue eyes stared back at her. Her pink fleur-de-lis covered cheeks and brown braids made up the features of her head. Although she had seen her own face before, it was not common for the young princess to see it in a manner as it was currently in. Her skin was a dimmer pale, pink fading from her marked cheeks, black lining tracing her eyelids. Elizabeth noticed how worn down she looked.

"Gotta get some sleep later," the brunette princess muttered to herself, moving the mirror from her hand to stuff the mirror in her knapsack.

Just as Elizabeth started to move her hand, the antique steel handle oozed a significantly larger amount of green smoke than when she first encountered it.

Immediately, a large puff of green smoke blasted right into her face. Elizabeth gagged and wheezed, her vision blinded by lime-colored fog, her lungs coughing and spewing. Elizabeth was convinced that the green mist would choke her to death.

Eventually, she blacked out.

* * *

_Unexpectedly, the mist subsided, and the girl awoke in a world that wasn't her own._

_The hazy green mist lay spread out foot-deep along the ground. Elizabeth found herself on the ground, sitting on hard pavement. She found herself outside, but it wasn't much brighter than the dark cave. The only source of visible light was a black lamppost from a distance away. Patches of grass surrounded the hard sidewalk she was laying on._

_Elizabeth looked up to see another teenager, an older boy with brown hair, standing over her. He was wearing dark tattered robes and a ripped up purple cape. The boy was holding some kind of blaster in his hand, and the worst part was that the blaster was aimed right at her. The boy's green eyes were cold and emotionless as he pressed the tip of his blaster to Elizabeth's chest. Elizabeth swore that her heart had skipped a beat._

_Behind the gun-wielding teenager, Elizabeth noticed a blonde-haired, green-eyed girl with light blue highlights in her hair. She was wearing a beautiful teal dress and the small seashell necklace the girl wore around her neck caught Elizabeth's eye. Her arms were locked tightly around the arms of darker skinned, brown-haired boy right beside her, sporting a black tuxedo and a blue tie. Her own blue eyes stared right back at the tuxedo boy's own brown irises. The Mewman's eyes widened when she identified the complexion and pupils of the tuxedo-wearing boy._

_Aside from the small beard, Elizabeth noticed the tan boy had a great semblance to King Marco Butterfly of Mewni... Her own flesh and blood. Her father._

_This revelation almost distracted the princess from the gun pressed towards her temple. The tuxedo boy's mouth was wide open upon seeing the young princess. Anticipating immediately, the young Marco lookalike and made a dash towards her assaillant._

_"STOP," the tuxedo boy shouted, putting both hands in front of him, ready to shove the man out of the way. The purple cape boy looked at young Marco for a second, but was not put off by this. The assaillant looked right down at Elizabeth, and with the same cold, unmoving green eyes, he pinned the tip of his blaster further into her and the green fog started to cloud around all of them._

* * *

Elizabeth woke up, her body lying in the middle of the cold stone cave floor, the exact same place where she touched the mirror. She looked around the cave. Nothing had appeared different than when she first encountered it, and she also checked her body for scars.

The princess also wondered what she was doing in this cave in the first place. The vision that she originally recollected in her memory had suddenly faded. It was not until she chuckled to herself about her own silly actions, and hit herself in the noggin playfully that she remembered everything.

Right when her fist lightly impacted her noggin, Elizabeth experienced and felt the whole vision yet again. The blaster pinned into her chest from the eerie robe-wearing teenager who was about to murder her at point blank, and the tuxedo-wearing boy who resembled her father. All of this played in the back of her mind, and the questions surrounding this vision haunted her more so than the vision itself.

Elizabeth sat down and argued with herself about the meaning of these sightings. She recalled from the vision that there was a tuxedo-wearing man, and next to him was a blonde-haired girl with blue highlights. She immediately deduced that the tuxedo-wearing man was definitely a past version of her own father, if not, a very accurate doppelgänger of himself. But who was the girl? She noted that this was definitely wasn't her mother, as this girl's eyes were green and slanted, with no heart-shapes present on either of her cheeks. But her presence was definitely the weirdest part of the dream.

The way this girl held hands with the past version of her father's, the way she eyed him with concern and worry about the events unfolding, there was more behind this than the vision allowed her to see. Never in Elizabeth's life had her father brought up this girl, who seemed more like a past lover than that of a friend.

Her mother probably wouldn't have had said anything for obvious reasons. But in the dream, her father and his girlfriend were dressed up for the occasion, which, to Elizabeth, was not something one would do if they were going out as friends. Elizabeth was disturbed by this woman's presence. Did her mother know about this? What if this person was doing something with the king behind her mother's back even to this day?

Then what exactly was this vision? The event that didn't add up in Elizabeth's mind was that the vision had elements of past and present alike. If it were a premonition of a future event, why was she seeing what looked like her father's past self? If it were a flashback to a past event, why was she there?

Most importantly, why would someone even want the princess of Mewni dead? Of course Mewni had enemies, but why on earth would someone even want to kill her?

Elizabeth scrambled around for the mirror, which was easily found in the dark due to the green glow of the mirror. She quickly shoved the mirror in the bottom of her knapsack and quietly made her way out of the cave.

The princess needed answers. A lot of them.

* * *

Queen Star Butterfly leaned haphazardly along the balustrade of the castle balcony of the elegant Butterfly Kingdom, reminiscing about her former glory days.

The thirty-something year old queen certainly had found her days numbered with very little to do but stay within the castle to protect it. Although most of her time as a youth was spent battling monsters and taking joyrides with her warnicorn, she was now limited to reading spellbooks back at home and talking with neighbouring kingdom officials about boring political agendas along a large list of topics.

Today was rare occasion, as she found herself with downtime from her queenly duties. She did not care about how she got it, but enjoyed every lasting second of it regardless.

The bedroom door behind her creaked open and Star sighed, expecting another servant to come bugging her. But, much to her surprise, it was her beloved husband, King Marco Butterfly, in his best Mewman royalty gown.

"Hey," Marco replied nonchalantly, sounding slightly deadbeat and tired as he strolled over to the balcony. Star blushed for a second, stroking her blonde hair awkwardly as Marco looked down towards the balcony as her.

"Hey," Star replied back with a grin, examining the features of her husband's face. His eyes seemed droopy and he looked rather fatigued, but Star was merely content with seeing her husband again after a long day of working with the construction crews.

"I see that new apartment building coming along well," Star noted, gesturing her gaze towards the balcony, where a skyscraper was being constructed in the village below. A generic conversation starter, Star herself noted, but it still worked on occasions like these. Marco chuckled and looked down at the village below.

"Glad you noticed," Marco stated, nodding in approval to his wife's compliment. "The workers are starting to become quite productive this time around."

"But, y'know," Star persuaded, "You could use a little bit of help to get things done faster. Why not a little spell to speed things up a notch?" With that, Star pulled a small purple wand from her large blue dress gown.

Marco smiled and put his hand in front of his mouth.

"But Star," he said in a sarcastic bit of shock, "What about our no magic rule?"

"Oh no, you're right," Star replied in the same sarcastic tone, moving the wand from the balcony constraints and hanging it above the open air, looking like she about to drop it. "Quick, we must dispose of this majestic power and make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands!"

The couple stood frozen on the balcony in their exact poses for a few seconds until Marco let out a burst of laughter, while Star did the same.

"Yeah," Marco noted between laughs, "Might not want to do that, m'lady. Our Princess's gonna be very cross with you on her birthday!"

Star smiled and looked at Marco, "Yeah, I forgot, erm, that's a thing." Star loved to sound crazy in front of her husband on purpose, just so he could diffuse situations and calm her down. Despite the couple's royal title, the couple always loved to goof off like the friends they had been since they were fourteen.

"Nah, let the workers do their work. We don't pay them for nothing," Marco replied smiling. Ever since Marco had taken the reigns of the Kingdom of Mewni ten years ago, the kingdom was modernized vastly. Besides the great improvement in the kingdom's infrastructure, Marco's reign was approved throughout the whole kingdom. Within ten years of Mewman rule, af set government, a board committee had taken the hotseat in the kingdom's decisions, rather than a solid dictatorship of the royal couple.

Technology had improved within the city of Mewni. Practical weapons were still included in the Mewman army, but modernized weapons were also included in the village's arsenal. The internet web was now entangled over the city and electronic appliances were sold across the village. Businesses became more varied and rarely did any of them find financial difficulty. Dirt streets now became paved streets, and the villagers were getting richer by the day.

Even with the supposed Golden Age of Mewni, Marco still kept old traditions of the medieval civilization intact. There were still warnicorns on the streets, street markets selling the freshest fruits and vegetables, and the goldsmith still got booming demands from the townspeople.

Queen Star admitted to herself, after these blazing results, that she would not have been able to rule the kingdom without Marco. He was the person in her life that kept her sane. The one that organized everything for her and set a system in place. The one who decided to make Mewni what it was today. Star nearly owed her whole life to him.

"Speaking of our little princess," Marco noticed, looking around with a slightly worried look on his face, "Where is she?"

Star looked down and sighed. "On her daily riding session."

"Again? Man, that girl sure loves her riding."

Star nodded, acknowledging her husband's comment, and said silently, "Well, to be fair, her combat training's been tiresome on her. A break is definitely the doctor's orders every now and again."

"Yeah, but," Marco replied nervously, "Isn't she going alone? Without supervision? She's only _thirteen_ , darling."

"Yet again, _you_ also seem to also forget she _is_ thirteen." Star replied, turning around and pacing softly as Marco sat on the family king-bed. "I was out slaughtering monsters alone at her age."

She turned back to her husband and grabbed his face in her hand. His face pored like sweat, despite the temperature only being lukewarm. Her eyes narrowed at Marco's as she looked at him seductively, "Besides, It's not like I'm complaining about her absence, anywho."

Her face leaned into Marco's mouth, and let her mouth fit his. It wasn't in fact a long kiss, but it was enough to satisfy her desires. When Star pulled away, she stared at Marco's dark brown eyes. His eyes were drooping, and sweat drenched him from all over.

"You smell, by the way,"

"I know." Marco acknowledged, allowing his wife to undress him from his robe, exposing only a skinny white t-shirt from underneath. The Queen then gave her husband a shove in front. Expecting his wife to come climbing on top of him and leaving a trail of kisses, the fact that she didn't left Marco half-heartedly disappointed.

"Just get some rest," his wife replied slyly, "I don't want you falling asleep later tonight."

Marco smiled before he complied to Star's demands. "Goodnight."

"Not exactly nighttime, your Majesty, but yes. Goodnight," Star replied flirtatiously before closing the bedroom door behind her.

"Love you," Marco called out from the bed.

"Ditto, _Sleeping Beauty_ ," Star called back from the bedroom door, before shutting it abruptly behind her.

* * *

When Star stepped out from the bedroom, she was now standing in the upper corridor of the castle, filled with antique paintings and old monuments. The Queen saw her young daughter Elizabeth rush up the red-carpeted castle steps wearing her best light blue princess robes, the ones Star wore when she was younger. Elizabeth always breathed new life into her already energetic self to the point that it was so exhausting at times. Still, as happy as she was to see Marco after a long day, she loved seeing her daughter yet again.

"Elizabeth," Star greeted her daughter, who was running towards her with joy. She met her daughter with a small hug. "How was your ride?"

"It was okay, I guess," Her brown haired daughter replied. She had something on her mind, and would not let it sit for much longer. "Is it alright if I ask you something?"

"Go ahead, my dear."

Elizabeth pulled out the small black hand mirror from under her skirt and presented it to her daughter. "Do you recognize this thing?" Star took the item in her hand and observed it carefully. Her face changed from a cheery expression to that of a sarcastic one.

"It's a hand mirror," Star stated, acting sarcastically glum. "You look at yourself with it. Haven't you seen one before?"

"Yeah, but it's not any hand mirror," Elizabeth shouted in a panicked voice, "I took it in my hands, a-and there was this green fog everywhere... A-and when I woke up, there was this weird vision and Father was in it, and some other girl or something... and..."

"Slow down, dear," Star nodded, understanding that her daughter might've seen something. "Frankly I've never seen a hand mirror like this before, but you can show me."

Elizabeth flashed the mirror right into her mother's hand and she looked at it herself. However, no green mist came out like the first occurrence. No vision. Nothing.

"What exactly did you see, Elizabeth," Star said.

"I dunno. I think Father would know. Where is he?"

"He's asleep right now, but why in Mewni's Crossing do you think he would know better?" The Queen prompted. Elizabeth scoffed. Yet again her father was too busy. Even when he wasn't busy, he would just sleep after a long day of work.

"Um..." Elizabeth wondered. Unlike her mother at the same age, she would still think about the repercussions of her own actions. She didn't want to risk telling her mother about this other girl she saw her father with in her vision, in case it was something she was bugged by, nor did she want to worry her parents and give them a scare. The young thirteen year old girl decided that the best thing to do was opt out of the conversation.

"Nothing! Ha-ha! Well, I'm _really_ tired, and I feel like I should get some rest. Forget we had this conversation!" Elizabeth called out as she dashed a few doors down the hall. "I'll see you at dinner! Buh-bye mother!"

Elizabeth slammed the door behind her while Star was left dazed by her daughter's actions.

* * *

That night, Elizabeth couldn't sleep.

She was still rolling around in her small soft bed, thinking about the vision yet again. Grabbing around her bedside table, she snatched the hand mirror again and stared at it immensely. After a few seconds, she accepted defeat. Elizabeth saw nothing but her own reflection, pink fleur-de-lis, blue eyes and all. Her own mother and father wouldn't and probably couldn't help her. There had to be someone who could help her, but who?

Then, someone came to her mind. A friend. Someone besides her parents who had been with her since day one. Someone who could see through different dimensions and understand magic better than anyone.

A certain help from a magical blue genie who lived in a magical book.


	3. Back to the Present

**Neutral Timeline**

"One last time," Glossaryck, the blue genie tutor, instructed as he levitated in what he called his 'lazy pose', whenever he lay down in midair. He was busy giving magic lessons to his young magical pupil, otherwise known as the eager interdimensional heir-to-the-throne Star Butterfly.

Star Butterfly had it. She breathed in and out, preparing herself with her last crack at conquering this spell once and for all.

"Hypersonic Unicorn Swirl!" the blonde interdimensional princess, Star Butterfly, screamed as she swiftly raised her purple-winged wand, striking a pose. Much to her dismay, however, there were no colourful spells being exerted from her wand.

Feeling defeated by the failure of what felt almost like the hundredth spell of the wand, the princess sighed as she threw her wand to the side and slumped on her bed.

"I don't know, Glossaryck," Star said with glum, "How _do_ you do a Hypersonic Unicorn Swirl?" The minuscule blue genie looked up from his savoury bag of chips and back at her. He sighed.

"You did it wrong, Star," Glossaryck replied, pointing right at her, "It's not jump, crouch, jump, crouch, sidle left, sidle left, sidle right. It's jump, crouch, jump, crouch, _sidle left, sidle right, sidle left_. You keep forgetting one different step each and every time."

Star's head spun into oblivion, drowning herself in one of her bedside pillows and letting out a groan.

"For the last time, Glossaryck," Star replied mockingly, "I'm not some down-to-earth saintly genius like you. I'm not even as smart as my own mother! It's gonna take me days to nick this down."

Glossaryck chuckled. "Yet again, you're convinced that your mother immediately became this glorified war hero who led the Mewmans into victory against a huge onslaught of monsters?"

"But she _was!_ Well, not immediately, but _s_ he definitely wouldn't have been called _Moon the Undaunting_ if she wasn't!"

The small, blue genie lay back on the book while munching on another savory bag of chips. "Yeah, you're right. Pardon my botched attempt of cheering you up."

Star stood up, her frown becoming more apparent from her face. She quickly removed the bag of chips from Glossaryck and grabbed him with her hand.

"Man, you Butterflys are all the same. You're cheerful at one moment, and then you fall into one of those mood swings. What happened? Did that unicorn head of yours die or something?"

The girl didn't take kindly to the blue genie's gritty teasing and, with her other hand, chucked the tangerine-orange bag of _Golden Crispz_ out the window. Glossaryck's eyes widened at this sight, but he did not wince nor stutter.

"C'mon, Star," Glossaryck replied rather confidently, "I was only joking about half of those things. Lighten up a little."

Star quickly dropped the genie, landing with a plop on the princess's carpeted floor. She sat cross-legged on the floor and pouted.

"So..," Glossaryck noted through her expression, "You're sure a grumpy little starling today. Mind telling your great-uncle Glossaryck?" He made sure to give her a few nudges on the shoulder.

"You're not my uncle."

"Well, I could be," Glossaryck said, giving Star a very wise smirk, "Hmm?"

"No."

Glossaryck's smile faded, reacting to his young pupil's sullen reaction to his jokes. "Well, I'm just going to tell you that giving the game away doesn't always mean you lose."

"What the heck's that supposed to mean," Star replied grumpily, still maintaining one of her own moods.

"Well, Star," Glossaryck lectured, ready to explain the meaning of his metaphor, "What I meant to say was..."

Just before Glossaryck could begin to explain, Marco Diaz, Star's hispanic roommate barged into her room, surveying through the objects around the room, looking for an unknown misplaced object.

"Marco," Star called out as the young boy lurked under her bed, ducking his head under the sheets and pulling every object from underneath the princess's bed. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find my shoes," Marco called out from below the bed. "I got a date at the movie theater with Jackie in an hour!"

"Why do you think they're in here?" Star asked, her voice sounding noticeably cold and glum than a mere few seconds ago.

"I dunno, but I checked everywhere and-oof," Marco had just bumped his head on Star's bed and was soothing the sore spot on his head. Star sat up and looked at Marco, eyes glittering and nervous.

"You alright," Star cooed in concern.

"Yeah, yeah," Marco noted with concern, before shrugging off his bump and pulling out a pair of black shoes and giving them a small peck, "But, ohohoho, at least I found these babies!"

Star rolled her eyes for a second and seemingly ignored the young boy's gaze. She felt her own cheeks twitching and her mouth running dry. For some reason, Star felt as downed as an airplane in freefall when she felt the impact of her friend's statement. Star kept herself from turning a tint red.

"What do you even need _those_ shoes for," Star said, putting up a sarcastic bravado. "It's just a _date_."

Marco looked at her with his mouth slightly agape, looking as though she were crazy. "B-b-but, do you even know who we're talking about?"

"Buh-buh-buh," Star imitated the young man's stuttering as she turned him towards her bedroom door, grabbing the shoes in her other hand and chucking them under her bed. "It's just a date, Marco. You're not getting engaged or anything!"

As she shoved Marco out of the room, she stopped right when Marco was standing outside her room. "Just relax and have fun! She _already_ agreed to go out with you for goodness sake!"

"But..." Marco said, still shocked and struggling to come up with a single word. He was promptly met with a wooden bedroom door slammed in front of his face.

"Buh, bye, Marco!" Star called out from the closed door, before she laid on the door carelessly and sighed when she was certain that Marco had gone. Unfortunately for her, she had forgotten that she wasn't the only presence in the room.

"So," Glossaryck noted after watching the events that had just occurred, "Got a little thing for that Earth kid?"

"Marco," Star said, twitching her eyes at the same time, "We've been through this before, Glossaryck."

"Star," the blue genie called, his small six-fingered palm raised up in a stopping motion. "Please. I can read your mind and your actions like a textbook."

Star blushed for a second, aghast that the blue genie had suddenly read her own mind. Still, the option between caving in and fighting to conceal her plethora of feelings became rather transparent to the young princess regardless.

"No I don't," Star insisted halfheartedly.

Glossaryck hovered over to the large brown-cased book and shrugged at his young protege. "Well, your life, your rules."

He shut the book right above him. In concern, Star approached the book and tried to yank it right open.

"Glossaryck," she cried out, "Don't be like this! What did I even say? What if I do have a crush on Marco?"

The book swerved open in a haze of purple, and Glossaryck stared intrinsically at Star's face, filled with grave concern.

"So you're admitting you _do_ have a crush on Margo?" Glossaryck asked.

Star, realizing the exact question she had asked, slapped the palm of her hand to her face. "Marco, and can we just forget I said any of that?"

"I was preferring a _no_ , to be frank with you," Glossaryck replied, interrupting her previous sentence and hovering for another bag of Golden Crispz potato chips, "But since it's a yes, I guess I have to..."

Star perked up, much like a small puppy, and became attentive to the genie's words. "Why no? Does something bad happen if I do end up having a crush-not that it's a yes, by any means."

"Why do these Butterflys always get into these romantic situations at such a young age," Glossaryck muttered under his breath before turning back to the young Princess. "To be frank, I also prefer to not have to answer the specifics to that particular question."

"Why not?"

Glossaryck looked gravely at the young Butterfly princess. "You are aware of my presence in many different timelines besides this one, correct?"

"Yes... erm, no..." Star said reluctantly, not sure of Glossaryck's points.

"I have seen lived through thousands of years of the Butterfly Kingdom," Glossaryck explained, "I can see things that are going to happen before they've happened, the future, you may call it. After all of this, I can safely say that you are making the same mistake previous generations of the Butterfly lineage have made before."

He paused in mid-sentence and let out a huff. Star was beginning to get scared of these questions. "What mistake? W-w-what happens?"

Glossaryck argued with himself as to tell Star before complying. "There's some kind of peculiar event that happens in the Butterfly lineage... Someone becomes envious and vies for love and attention of someone else. I have never seen a case where this lust has resulted well. I have looked into your future, and your unhealthy lust for this young boy will drive you to chaos."

"Yeah? How?" Star said boldly, contrary to her own frightful attitude. The princess also didn't acknowledge that she had failed to conceal her secret in her own fear.

"Do you really want to know and live with worry on your shoulders?" Glossaryck asked. "Or do you want to live the rest of your life with the thought that I could be lying straight to your face right now?"

"Are you-?"

Glossaryck gave out a little chuckle. "Believe what you want to believe, Princess."

As Star stayed in place acknowledging her mentor's words, Glossaryck looked outside Star's bedroom balcony while munching on another chip.

"To be frank with you," Glossaryck mentioned, "I've spent much of my years dedicated to training young royal children, yet their minds around the concept of love remain an enigma to me."

Star turned around to her mentor, watching him babble on. She said nothing, yet she listened to the small genie's words.

"A storm is brewing, Star Butterfly," the genie muttered, "And you don't want to get caught up when it crosses."

"Is this another one of your dialogues," Star pressured, trying to make her way out of the situation, "Because if this is, I think I might see myself o-"

"Do you wish see clearer skies in the sunset," The genie interrupted. Star was unsure what to make of the genie.

"What on earth do you me-"

"Do you wish," Glossaryck repeated sternly, "to see clearer skies?"

"Yes," Star said, throwing her hands up in the air, "I guess I do. Anyone does, Glossaryck. Why did you want me to answer this again?"

Glossaryck looked solemnly at her.

"In order to see these clearer skies, you must put aside your silly crush, this, deluded fantasy for this Earthling, and see him as nothing more than a friend. An ally, if you will," Glossaryck notified her. "In the far future, this silly schoolgirl crush will become a weakness that can and _will_ be exploited by anyone familiar with emotional manipulation."

Star was verging to blast the young genie with one of her spells. It seemed as though Glossaryck wanted to strip a part of her, something that was vital to her own life, just so a supposed bad guy come after them. But yet again, she wasn't very certain that Glossaryck was incorrect.

"I guess I could try," she spoke shyly. Then she remembered something, "Say, if you know what's in the future anyways, why not change the future yourself? Why not tell me who the bad guy is?"

"What I was given in ability, I was stripped of in humanity, my fair Princess," the wise blue genie replied, turning his attention to the balcony outside. "Things happen to everyone in every single waking moment of their lives. The future is merely just that; events which are changed by a string of other events. Humanity says that we should use this power for the better, but for me, personally, these are just mere changes. Changes can only be labelled good or bad by others depending on their own gain."

Glossaryck hummed a soft tune, and he started to hover over to the large Book of Spells. He closed his eyes.

"Who's to be the judge of what is good and what is bad," Glossaryck hummed, "Who's to say that you should or shouldn't remove your feelings for Margo?"

"Mar-" Star was about to correct him, but felt more important questions had to be asked, "You told me to stop falling for Marco! You said something bad would happen if I didn't."

"I merely gave you a suggestion," Glossaryck chuckled before the book shut from between him and hovered under Star's bed. "I was only merely _warning_ you of an upcoming danger. It may or may not happen based on your own crucial decisions in the near future. After all, m'lady, it's all up to you. It's all up to you."

And with the words of the older mentor stuck in the young girl's mind, the book abruptly closed.

* * *

Star lay herself onto her bed, thinking about each word that the blue genie spoke to her. She started to ponder the words that her small blue mentor had spoken and took in the full weight each word. The blue genie somehow seemed certain that she lusted over Marco with the same lust as a young schoolgirl to a celebrity, if you could elevate Marco to such a title, that is.

Star's own emotions had bounced around like a trampoline through the times spent, the days she spent on Earth. Although she would never admit it to herself, Star admitted that she saw something different in Marco. She just never knew when it started. Had it started when Marco brought her camping for the first time, or the time when the young boy was kidnapped by Ludo's army. Of this time, she would never know.

But she admitted that her perceptions of this red-hooded boy had changed. He had suddenly become a figure of affection to her, and whenever she saw the young boy talk, the Mewman princess was she was around Marco, she always felt small bursts of thermal energy which made her feel warm and fluffy inside. What Star Butterfly wanted most of all was for these small bursts of warmth to overtake her, and wanted to melt right into Marco's arms.

Star, thinking about the times she was with Marco, giggled to herself like a young kitten, and kept doing this to herself when the doorbell suddenly rang. Star felt herself catapulted from her small fantasy and back into reality. Although back into the reality, the girl felt lighter than a feather. She slid down the wooden railing of the house steps and came to a triumphant landing in the middle of the door, as though an audience were right in front of her to see it. She swung open the door to find a dark-haired girl with small brown eyes, wearing a ragged brown hat. It was one of her best friends, Janna.

"Janna Banana," Star hollered her friend's nickname with glee before hugging her tightly, "How's it going today?"

"Pretty great," Janna shrugged, seemingly as stiff as a rock when Star's arms enveloped her body. Star sensed something a bit off. Despite the calm and laid-back nature of her friend, she felt that her friend was more tense and awkwardly quiet for some reason. The young girl hesitantly looked back and the black-haired girl. Janna looked flushed with a bright red tint over her face, her eyes stuck in a trance of some sort. Star gawked and snapped her fingers in her face.

"Earth to Janna," Star softly called out, giggling to herself. "You alright?"

Janna shook her head and stared at her friend. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just- ugh!"

"Might as well spill it then," Star muttered.

"What?"

"You always come here whenever you have one of these wacky ideas, so might as well get it off your chest now."

Janna's face beet as red as a tomato at her friend's humor. "Am I that predictable, excuse me, _Princess_ Butterfly?"

"Predictable as _'my demon ex-boyfriend Tom's pickup lines'_ -predictable."

Janna and Star let out a few chuckles before their fits of laughter eventually died down. "Alright, alright. Seriously, you know our school?"

"You mean the school-that-we-go-to-everyday kinda school," Star replied, making Janna blush again.

"Precisely. Anyways, apparently what I heard from some old records was that our school used to be an old prison where they used to execute prisoners," Janna replied eerily.

"When was this?"

"I dunno, like, a hundred years ago."

"And, why are you telling me this now?" Star replied uneasily. It seemed like Janna had another crazy idea. Not that she minded any of Jackie's crazy ideas, after all.

Janna quickly cupped her hands into Star's face and looked at her. "You're going to the school dance with Marco next week, right?"

"Yeah..." Star replied, suddenly stuck in a future premonition of herself dancing with the young Hispanic, feeling her arms wrapped around him, and his arm wrapped around hers. It took her best friend's mere request to snap her back into reality.

"Could you float me an extra ticket for the dance," Janna requested, "I don't really feel like splashing anything."

"Janna, if you're taking someone, you might as well-" Star ranted, "Wait a minute, why are you even heading to the dance when you don't have a partner?"

"A lot of assumptions made there, Star," Janna chuckled, "I'm thinking about holding a seance for the old prisoners at the school, silly! You think I care about some stupid high school dance?"

"Nah, but I thought you would've, um, changed a little bit," Star replied, "A seance?"

"Yeah, think of the potential, Star," Janna called, gesturing to an imaginary scope of high probability to her magical friend, "We could bring back these old spirits and have them do our sentient bidding! Even if anything goes wrong, we'll use your magic and blast these ghosts back to the underworld or wherever they came from!"

"Not sure if my magic works like that-" Star replied, before realizing the limitless possibilities that her friend was aiming for. "Yeah! Then we could freak out the whole school and get revenge on whoever we wanted!"

Janna put an arm around her shoulder and spoke to the magical princess softly before leading her to Star's upstairs bedroom. "I have taught you well, my young Padawan. Now c'mon, I have to show you a few things for next week's saiance!"

As Janna dashed upstairs, Star followed, distracted yet still keeping Glossaryck's words at bay. Star didn't notice that her friend's red tint had far from faded, and a dream-like trance was stuck on the young black-haired girl's face.


End file.
